Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes
Distance: 6 km
Start: Car park at the end of the gravel drive/road Orton Bradley Park
Finish: Same place - it's a loop
Date: Friday 26th April 2024
We payed our $10 Orton Bradley Park entrance fee at the old telephone box and drove to the end of the gravel road/driveway. As we exited the car, it was raining a bit and an icy southerly wind whipped through every nook and cranny of our bodies. Brrrrr! We proceeded to pfaff around donning layers and swapping thermals, rainjackets and puffers. Those that had too few layers gained more and those that had too many got less. Eventually we were in some sort of equilibrium - Linda was sporting a pair of fabulous dragon cuffs made by her mother-in-law Pat - a local Lyttelton knitting stalwart.
We got unterwegs, heading up the hill, following the blue poles, on the Tablelands Track. The rain had stopped and a rainbow shimmered in front of the pines. As we entered the forest, the sun made the wattle trees shine like silver. The forest was alive with birds - piwakawaka/fantails and korimako/bellbirds were doing their thing - flitting and fluttering - whistling and warbling. A rabbit bounded past at high speed.
At the top, we crossed a couple of turnstiles into farmland. The path ran next to the fenceline along the ridge for awhile. Just in the lee of the mountain with the sun streaming down. Soooo pleasant. It was good to be out and about.
The clouds ahead cleared and we got unhindered views of Mt Bradley and Te Ahu Pātiki/Mt Herbert. With the help of some crowd funding, the Rod Donald Trust purchased a 500 hectare block of land between those two mountains in 2021 for a lazy $1.5 M. A lovely cleavage which they hope one day to reforest and turn into a conservation park for the public to enjoy. Rod Donald was the former co-leader of the Green Party who died in 2005 at the age of 48. Interesting side story: Many years ago Carolien found a message in a bottle on Brighton Beach which was signed by Rod Donald.
We were now in the valley, heading in the general direction of the car park. We stayed on the farm track in the sun for awhile - but eventually took a gate through to the Valley Floor Track, which followed Te Wharau Stream all the way back to the car park. A herd of cows were mooing rather too loudly nearby. Distressed? The farmers were with them so we went on our way. That did not prevent us from going down a rabbit hole of speculation as to all the horrible things that could be happening to them. We paused to go through the Narnia door in the middle of the path.
The plan was to go to the Orton Bradley Cafe but alas, it was closed (only open on Sundays at the moment). We checked out the rather macabre doggy grave site (Tilly, Ned, Bert, Purdy, Mr Plumb, Syd, Muff and others). According to the nearby information boards, in 1850, Banks Peninsular was mostly covered in podocarp forest, but within 50 years it was almost all gone, cut for timber or burnt to make way for farming by Pākehā. A few voices called in vain for a halt to the destruction. The Reverend Bradley had bought land at Charteris Bay from Ngāi Tahu in 1859 and his son Reginald Orton-Bradley took over in 1892. Orton planted thousands of trees. Mostly exotics but also natives. He died in 1943, leaving the entire property (1612 acres, 2 roods and 29 perches) for the "just benefit and enjoyment of the people of New Zealand". A private act of parliament (R.O. Bradley Estate Act 1972) was passed specifying the details from Orton's will. The park was to be (and is to this day) managed by the Orton Bradley Park Board, comprising volunteer local Cantabrians from a list of organisations. The list is interesting to read: "a person appointed by the Christchurch City Council", "a person appointed by the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand (Incorporated)", "A person from the Automobile Association", etc... No iwi though.
